The New York Times Compendium

Compendium is a new tool from The New York Times. According to the website, Compendium allows you to create collections of articles, quotes, images, and videos from The New York Times that you can annotate to tell a story and then share with the world. It is also a place where you can discover stories created by The New York Times readers, editors and reporters. You can only sign in with a Facebook or Twitter account.

DuoLingo

DuoLingo is a free language-learning website that provides language lessons with practice activities that are part of larger units. The languages available include Spanish, French, German, Portuguese and Italian. A neat feature of DuoLingo is that after you complete lessons, you can help translate web content into English. DuoLingo scores your translation based on how similar it is to other translations of the same web content. All users can rate the translations which helps DuoLingo choose the “best” translation which is then used to make the web available in more languages.  A DuoLingo iPhone app is also available.

Google Drive Template Gallery

If you are in Google Drive and click on “Create” and then “From template…” you will gain access to the Google Drive Template Gallery.  Hundreds of free templates, of a wide variety, are available to create your document, spreadsheet, presentation or form. Template categories include Students & Teachers, Calendars & Schedules and Resumes & Cover Letters. The Student & Teacher template category includes hundreds of helpful templates for grade reports, student evaluations, syllabi, lesson plans, and more. You can view a full screen preview of the template in a new window by clicking on “Preview” and if  you click on “Use this template” you can create and add a copy of the template to your Docs list.

All TV News Since 2009 Searchable on One Website

Internet Archive has all of the broadcast transcripts and video clips of US National TV networks and stations in San Fransisco and Washington D.C. since 2009 available in its new TV News Search and Borrow database.  New broadcast transcripts and video clips are added 24 hours after they air and broadcast transcripts and video clips prior to 2009 are being added every day. Internet Archive created TV News Search and Borrow to educate people about the issues and candidates in the 2012 U.S. elections.

Khan Academy

Khan Academy offers a vast selection of  free education resources.  Educational resource topics include math, science, computer science, finance and economics, humanities and test prep. Students can take advantage of the extensive video collection, interactive offerings and assessments available. They are given a custom profile and are able to measure their progress. Teachers can check-in and get a class report for all  students to see how their students are progressing.

Pastelink

Pastelink is a great, easy way to share large files online. It is free to use and you do not need to sign-up or install software to use it. It is user-friendly and allows you to share  files up to 250MB with others. If you sign-up you can  share files up to 2GB. There is no limit to the number of files you can send. To use Pastelink, simply drag and drop the file that you want to share onto the Pastelink website and then Pastelink will create a URL for your file.

AASL – Best Websites for Teaching and Learning

The American Association of School Librarians has unveiled their “Best Websites for Teaching and Learning” list for 2012. All of the websites that have been selected are free to use. The website categories include Media Sharing, Digital Storytelling, Manage & Organize, Social Networking & Collaboration, Content Resources, and Curriculum Collaboration.

Slide Rocket

Slide Rocket is a free web-based presentation tool. It allows for easy collaboration and sharing with other users and it allows for the inclusion of slides from Google Presentation and PowerPoint. It has a user-friendly interface that makes it easy to add videos and pictures to presentations.

Free Online Graphing Calculator

Desmos is a fully-functioning, in-browser  graphing calculator. It is a great alternative for students who haven’t yet purchased or have lost their graphing calculator. 

mapFAST

mapFAST allows you to find library materials about world wide locations through WorldCat or Google Books. Simply type in the geographic location you would like to find library materials on and click search. You can limit the search radius and the types of places that are displayed (regions, lakes, populated places, etc.) You will be given a map with locations and you can click on the appropriate one to search through the library materials available.